Robert Shwartzman stormed to a sensational pole position in qualifying for the Indy 500 on his first attempt at The Brickyard.
The PREMA driver exceeded expectations during his first event on an oval, having spent his junior career in Europe and ascended the ladder towards F1.
Shwartzman critically kept out of trouble and built up a lot of laps while much more experienced drivers crashed and fell by the wayside over the month of May.
Colton Herta crashed in qualifying, while Team Penske’s Will Power and defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden were penalised for breaching the rules. They will start the race on the back row in 32nd and 33rd place.
Robert Shwartzman’s first Indy 500 memory was watching it in Monaco
IndyCar has become increasingly popular among young drivers who were overlooked by F1 teams and older competitors without a race seat at the highest level.
Shwartzman revealed in the post-qualifying press conference that his first memory of the Indy 500 came when he was chasing a spot on the F1 grid.
He said: “My first memory was when I was in Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco, I was just as a kid, let’s say, just watching the Formula 1 race, and at the same time it was going the Indy 500 race.
“So there was my friends and sponsors, and they invited me to a yacht, like the part of Monaco. I was just sitting there. It was no Formula 1 running.
“That was the first memory, Damn, this is amazing. This is proper battle. Then I obviously start hearing a lot of things about Indy that it’s another way from Formula 1. If you don’t go to Formula 1, the best thing is to go to INDYCAR. Here we are.
IndyCar has become increasingly popular with young drivers overlooked by F1 teams and older drivers without a seat away at the top level.
Formula 1 veterans Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean switched to North America and the Swede won the Indy 500 in 2022.
This is Shwartzman’s first season in IndyCar, and he is teammates with Callum Ilott at PREMA. The Briton is another talented driver who was unable to secure a spot on the F1 grid.
Both Shwartzman and Ilott competed with PREMA in their junior careers and held reserve driver roles in Formula 1.
The feeling of taking pole position
“Honestly it’s unbelievable. I was just processing it, and I still can’t believe it. It’s just a dream.
“I was just thinking in my dreams fantasizing, How will it feel to take pole position in Indy 500? How is the vibe? Then I was, like, ‘Yeah, Robert, get back to reality. You have a new car, new team, you are a rookie. How can you expect to be in this position? It’s just in your dreams.’
“But still I was keeping that tiny dream deep inside like maybe, maybe. Yeah, coming here, honestly, we missed the first testing day. Let’s say the free practice. Even so, I think the thing that made me sit here now in this position I think is just the right team mentality. You don’t need to be a genius. You don’t need to have incredible experience. You just need to have a good people around you as a team, which are conscious of what they’re doing.
“You know, as a whole team, you just know that, Okay, we’ll go step by step, small steps without rushing because even though I don’t have experience, I’ve heard a lot of people saying that Indy doesn’t forgive. One slight mistake can cost you a lot.
“We’ve seen Colton, Marcus, Scotty, they were really fast, but I think they could have definitely challenged, but with that mistake, they didn’t manage to do it. So that was the thing that I didn’t really want to do. That’s why we didn’t come up with the warmup yesterday and in practice today. It was just like, you know, No, let’s keep it safe, just stable. We know that the car is quite quick. Just need to be consistent, do the four laps, and the last run I just give it all. I give maximum what I could.
“I tried to stay as long as possible flat, and yeah, here we are. We managed to survive it. I managed to hold it on. Honestly it was the best feeling ever. The car was just amazing.”
Robert Shwartzman could become the 10th rookie to win the Indy 500
Shwartzman will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday. Takuma Sato and Pato O’Ward are alongside him on the front row.
Alexander Rossi won the 100th Indy 500 in 2016 on his first attempt. He will line up in 12th place for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Taking victory will be a significant challenge as Shwartzman has yet to experience tyre wear and fuel management over the 200 laps. A win would represent a huge step forward since Shwartzman’s first IndyCar test at The Thermal Club.
The 25-year-old will have to be flawless for the 500 mile distance while capitalising on any mistakes made by his rivals.
